As his team jumped back into Commonwealth District play at .500 with two wins at home and two losses on the road, Albemarle coach Greg Maynard explained to his players how important it was to hold serve at home for the Patriots to remain in top half of the standings as one of the top teams.
Facing another top dog in the district in visiting Stafford, the Patriots built up a healthy lead once and watched turnovers in their own end negate it once. They wouldn’t let it happen twice. Thanks to a boat load of free throws and some strong finishes underneath the basket against a hard-trapping Indians squad, Albemarle was able to maintain their CD home advantage with a 73-59 win.
“I thought we played really well over the holidays by winning four of our five games,” Maynard said. “But I still wanted to make a statement to one of the top teams in our league – that we’ll be contending throughout the year. If you can’t beat the top teams on your court, then you can’t make that statement.”
Things were going pretty well for the Patriots in the first quarter and the early half of the second as Andrew Mann was having his way up and down the court, helping to put his team up by double-figures. But in the last four minutes of play before the half, Stafford, led by Justin Miller and Gaither Mason, broke off an 11-2 run to make it a 1-point contest. Mann got back to work underneath the basket in the last minute of the second frame and was able to extend the lead back to four points before the break, but the Indians came right out in the third quarter and tied the game up in the first two minutes.
“In the first quarter we kind of had our way,” Maynard said. “But from there they picked up the intensity with their defense. We didn’t handle that well. We started throwing really quick passes when we didn’t need to and gave them a lot scoring chances in transitions so they went and got the momentum.”
A timeout from Maynard wound up bringing the Indians’ momentum to a halt, or rather, spruced up his bunch to get back to breaking the Stafford trap without turning the ball over. Either way, Jake Hendrix and Kendall Hawkins scored the next seven points to give Albemarle some wiggle room. After a pair of Stafford baskets cut it back to three, Hendrix, Michael Ledford and a buzzer beating put-back from Jeremiah Morris gave the Patriots another 7-0 run and re-established a double-digit difference.
In the fourth quarter it was all free throws and shots down low for Albemarle.
“It was just a fact that we had to pull away,” Hawkins said. “When your team’s in that situation you’ve got to hit your shots so that’s what I had to do.”
Hawkins did, and when it wasn’t him, Morris and Hendrix were there to do it as well. The Patriots were able to keep their distance, save for a moment around the 1:17 mark when the Indians got hot on back-to-back 3-pointers to get within seven. However a foul followed by a technical on Stafford during Albemarle’s next possession put the game on ice. Well into the double-bonus, Albemarle finished the game off at the foul line.
“We held on,” Maynard said. “They essentially resorted to just hacking us, for the whole fourth quarter it seemed. I’m sure they’ll go home and complain that we won only because we shot so many free throws, that’s what a lot of teams do. But when you foul like that, that often, it gets called.”
Hawkins led all scorers with 25 points. Morris and Hendrix scored 15 and 14 respectively. While Mann’s offense came almost exclusively in the first half, his rebounding was key all game long, as was his ability to bring the ball up court. He finished with 10 points and 19 rebounds on the night. Hendrix had six boards. Despite playing with foul trouble in the second half, Lee Carneal had nine assists.
And with a road game to follow this victory, Albemarle knows exactly what to do.
“We can always play better defense,” Morris said. “And we can work on pressure. We had a lot of turnovers tonight. We need to be a lot calmer when we’ve got the ball and take care of it.”
The Patriots (9-3, 3-2) travel to Colonial Forge on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
